The pads do require some remodeling and modernization from time to time, so this is a planned change. Before us, all the launches used to take place at the Gagarin launch pad and now we're going to switch that tradition and show that launches can occur from another pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. So we'll now use launch pad 31.

Today's launch was described as testing out the infrastructure improvements and repairs made to Pad 6/Site 31 over the past few years.

Beginning now through 2014, Pad 5/Site 1 ("Gagarin's Start") will undergo its own set of upgrades, that will make it unavailable for some period of time. With the successful launch of Soyuz TMA-06M, they now have a proven pad to continue launches uninterrupted.

Robert Pearlman

Tonight's (March 14) scheduled landing of Soyuz TMA-06M may be delayed due to poor weather conditions in Kazakhstan.

Fog and freezing rain prevented the Search and Recovery helicopters from being deployed earlier Thursday from the staging city of Kustanai to Arkalyk and the ballistic staging town of Aktobe.

The landing has not yet officially been postponed by Roscosmos. Russian state commission members are expected to meet by mid-afternoon, if not before, to decide whether to press for a landing Thursday or delay 24 hours.

Although the weather forecast calls for improving conditions across the Kazakh steppe over the next 24 hours, it is unclear as to whether those conditions will improve enough to enable a landing on time tonight or on two subsequent landing opportunities.

If Soyuz TMA-06M is delayed, it would not be the first time weather has postponed a Soyuz returning to Earth. Soyuz TMA-13 was delayed one day from April 7, 2009, due to snow and soggy conditions on the Kazakh steppe.

Robert Pearlman

The return of Soyuz TMA-06M to Earth has been delayed at least 24 hours due to poor weather conditions at the landing site in Kazakhstan.

After Russian recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle, the crew was flown by helo in 2 hrs to Kustanai where Kevin Ford boarded the waiting NASA-992 Gulfstream-III airplane which today is bringing them back to Houston/Ellington AFB (with 2 refueling stops). It's the 12th direct return for USOS crewmembers. Oleg Novitskiy & Yevgeniy Tarelkin meanwhile were flown on the GCTC Tu-134 back to Chkalovsky airfield of GCTC (Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center) at Zvezdniy Gorodok (Star City) where the usual cheerful crowd of officials and families welcomed them before their disappearance into the “Prophy” hospital for post-mission medicals.